NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) test bed has begun its experiments after completing its checkout on the International Space Station. The SCaN test bed is an advanced, integrated communications laboratory facility that uses a new generation of software-defined radio technology to allow researchers to develop, test and demonstrate advanced communications, networking and navigation technologies…

Orbital Sciences Corporation, one of the worldís leading space technology companies, April 21 completed a successful test launch of its new Antaresô rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport located at NASAís Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia. Lift-off took place at 5 p.m., EDT, followed by payload separation approximately 10 minutes later and mission completion…

Aerojet, a GenCorp company, announced April 21 that its dual AJ26 main engine system successfully powered the first stage of Orbital Sciences Corporation’s he two Aerojet AJ26 engines, which form the Antares rocket’s first-stage main engine system, burned for 233 seconds and provided 816,000 pounds of vacuum thrust as it powered Antares from the launch…

Astronomers have used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to photograph the iconic Horsehead Nebula in a new, infrared light to mark the 23rd anniversary of the famous observatory’s launch aboard the space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990. Looking like an apparition rising from whitecaps of interstellar foam, the iconic Horsehead Nebula has graced astronomy books…

NASA’s Kepler mission has discovered two new planetary systems that include three super-Earth-size planets in the “habitable zone,” the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet might be suitable for liquid water. The Kepler-62 system has five planets; 62b, 62c, 62d, 62e and 62f. The Kepler-69 system has…

Three smartphones destined to become low-cost satellites rode to space Sunday aboard the maiden flight of Orbital Science Corp.’s Antares rocket from NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia. The trio of “PhoneSats” is operating in orbit, and may prove to be the lowest-cost satellites ever flown in space. The goal of NASA’s PhoneSat mission…

NASA has selected a new satellite mission and a new space-based instrument to begin development as part of the agency’s Heliophysics Explorer Program. The projects will provide space observations to study Earth’s ionosphere and thermosphere. The Ionospheric Connection (ICON) mission, led by Thomas Immel of the University of California, Berkeley, will probe the extreme variability…

NASA and more than 150 partner organizations worldwide will be hosting the International Space Apps Challenge April 20-21, 2013. The International Space Apps Challenge is a technology development event during which citizens from around the world work together to solve challenges relevant to improving life on Earth and in space. NASA and its partners have…